Sunday 19 January 2014 10.25 EST
First published on Sunday 19 January 2014 07.28 EST

3.24pm GMT

FULL-TIME: Swansea City 1-3 Tottenham Hotspur

A very good day for Spurs, who have real momentum now. They were strong enough to resist when Swanse started well - though were fortunate to see Bony's shot splatter the bar. But otherwise, once they crafted the first goal, they looked confident and composed, with Chirches commanding at the back, Eriksen inventive , nippy and thoughtful in midfield, and Adebayor a constant threat.

Thanks all for your emails and that; bye.

Updated at 3.25pm GMT

3.22pm GMT

90+3 min Spurs pass the ball to each other, Swansea jog around.

3.21pm GMT

90+2 min It's not been a good afternoon for Swansea, but Bony has been excellent. The issue is how to best use him when Michu returns.

3.19pm GMT

90 min There shall be five additional minutes.

3.18pm GMT

88 min But then Chiriches espies Adebayor loping free, and accordingly, cuts across a low, straight pass that kicks off the turf just enough to be just too long, and Tremmel tidies up.

3.16pm GMT

88 min Spurs are doing there best to affect control, Swansea frenzy. The outcome is not a lot of anything.

3.15pm GMT

86 min "We're Tottenham Hotspur, we'll sing what we want". And who wouldn't want to be known for exactly that?

3.14pm GMT

84 min Bony is a really interesting combination of violent and dainty, shaking round and through a challenge out on the left and crossing for Lamah - but with insufficient pace for any power to be generated when the header came.

3.11pm GMT

83 min Swansea have been denied possession since the goal, Spurs back to looking all composed.

Updated at 3.12pm GMT

3.10pm GMT

81 min "After 22 games in the middle of a Gareth Bale inspired season," writes John Tumbridge, "Spurs had three less points than they will probably have at the end of today's match."

That's how they do.

Updated at 3.11pm GMT

3.09pm GMT

79 min Naughton replaces Lennon and Rose is booked for something or other.

3.07pm GMT

GOAL! Swansea City 1-3 Tottenham Hotspur (Bony, 78)

The ball spends a while bouncing around just outside the Spurs box, before Bony tries a shot, and when it's blocked, lifts a pass over the top for Davies. He is quickly slammed to the ground, Chiriches running into him hard, but the collision sets up Bony perfectly, who moves onto the loose sphere and opens his body to guide a finish past Lloris with intense ease.

Updated at 3.09pm GMT

3.06pm GMT

75 min Swansea's next four league games are Fulham (h), West Ham (a), Cardiff (h), Stoke (a). If they can't take minimum six points from them, they've a problem - and also a potential hiding from Napoli on the way.

3.00pm GMT

GOAL! Swansea City 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur (Adebayor, 71)

Dawson is quickly into the tackle, and the ball then finds its way out left, for Eriksen, who quickly and smartly moves it on for Rose, hurtling down the line outside him. Again, Adebayor is imploring in the middle, and this time the ball arrives, so he makes to shoot, doesn't, then slides a low finish past Tremmel.

Adebay-score, isn't it? Photograph: GEOFF CADDICK/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 3.12pm GMT

3.00pm GMT

70 min Dembele taps back to Walker, who finds Eriksen - and he lofts a curled ball over the top, Dembele now charging away. With Adebayor screeching for a square ball, he instead tucks a left-footed finish inside the far post - only to see it slide just outside, earning him a thorough mappolleh from his mate.

2.58pm GMT

68 min Dodgy one, this. Bony misses his touch chasing a ball down the touchline, and it bounces between him and Chiriches. Bony isn't having it, though, and charges with his face, landing hard. He's booked, and Chirches requires treatment.

2.56pm GMT

68 min Sigurdsson replaces Chadli.

2.56pm GMT

67 min Swansea have been better these last few minutes, and win a further corner, this time on the left. It's outswung to the near post, where Flores is first to leap introducing brow to ball. But he can't direct it at goal - he ought to have done - and the chance is gone.

2.54pm GMT

65 min A ball into space sets Routledge running at Rose, who isn't impressed to be beaten, bundling back into his man at the cost of a corner. It comes to nothing, and Routledge is also intimating injury, which is not exactly what Swansea require.

2.52pm GMT

62 min Funny how things change - we're now being told how well Bentaleb and Adebayor have played when neither did anything for the first half-hour. And there both are again, combining to set the latter clear - on halfway, he nutmegs Flores and accelerates across Williams, shaping to shoot from around 30 yards before taking a sneaky extra touch that opens the angle for a pass rolled right, to Lennon. Opening his body, he looks to curl one in at the far post, but Williams lumbers across sharply, blocking the effort.

2.49pm GMT

60 min Spurs are playing with nonchalance and confidence now, swaying, feinting and passing. But then Pozuelo wriggles some space just outside the box, right of centre, and finds Bony, who judders an instashot that Lloris parries away.

2.47pm GMT

59 min Hugo Lloris has kept a fair few clean sheets this season - can't be long before he's called up to the Wales squad.

2.46pm GMT

57 min Swansea are in a situation here.

2.42pm GMT

GOAL! Swansea City 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur (Flores og, 54)

If Spurs' first goal was near enough unpreventable, this one was quite the reverse. Allowed to knock the ball around without molestation, eventually it wound up on the right, and with Lamah, in the left-back position, not mithered to track his runner, when Eriksen played a pass inside him for Walker, suddenly, Spurs were in. Then, with only defenders in the six-yard box, Walker drilled a cross into the six-yard box anyway, where Flores just couldn't help himself; rather than allow it to run across the face and away, he ran it past Tremmel and into the net. Ah.

Looks like he pulled a Homer. Photograph: REBECCA NADEN/REUTERS

Updated at 2.58pm GMT

2.41pm GMT

52 min Emmanuel Adebayor has a tremendous barber - at least he didn't waste his time when not being good enough to be picked by Andre Villas-Boas.

2.39pm GMT

51 min Poor old Swansea. Jonjo Giggs has twanged a hamstring, so departs to be replaced by Lamah.

2.39pm GMT

50 min Chirches, whose confidence has grown through the game, carries the ball clear, which is all Amat can take, and he clumps him a sair yin across the shins, for which he is booked. Love by name, hate by nature.

2.37pm GMT

48 min Swansea triangulate down the right, before Rose loses patience and steams through Pozuelo to set Spurs off on the attack.

46 min Spurs kick-off. They've not won five consecutive away games in the league since Bill Nicholson was manager.

Updated at 3.03pm GMT

2.33pm GMT

Half-time email, with Jeremy Boyce. "When will those top stat-lovers, our friends the TV commentators, finally realise that a corner is a defensive gambit already won (in conceding the corner), in so much as only 1 in 40 corners leads directly to a goal?"

Yes, I see what you mean - free-kicks are similar, the percentage that result in goals extremely low. I imagine we'd see more if those around the box were crossed, but consider how much poorer our lives would be as a consequence.

2.25pm GMT

Anyway, that first half. Spurs either produced the perfect away performance, absorbing pressure before striking with precision and style, or happened upon a moment of quality despite themselves. Swansea will not be at all happy with things.

HALF-TIME: Swansea City 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur

....

2.19pm GMT

45+3 min Routledge escapes, haring onto the ball on the left of the box and preparing a shot. But before he could draw back his foot, Walker flung himself into a desperate but superb tackle, poking the ball away.

2.17pm GMT

45+1 min Eriksen has now taken over from Bony, and when Chadli's flick finds him inside the box, by it's right edge, he makes to go outside and drags his body inside, fooling Davies. His cross is kicked clear, but that was great nonetheless.

2.15pm GMT

45 min There shall be three additional minutes.

2.13pm GMT

43 min But then Rangel arcs a ball around Chiriches, who isn't paying attention, and Routledge zips onto it, forcing a corner - which comes to nothing.

2.12pm GMT

41 min Swansea have closed their eyes and are rocking gently, hoping for half-time. Rose nashes in to rob Bony and zooms into the space, chucking a shoulder that fools Amat and opening up even more space - he's now nearing the box. But with the option of continuing the run and moving in on goal, he instead catapults his entire corporeal into a shot that's sliced high and wide.

Updated at 2.15pm GMT

2.11pm GMT

39 min For now, at least, the timbre of the game has changed, and Spurs are dominating. They're just regaining possession so easily, and when Chadli wins a long ball to nod down for Adebayor, on the right of the box, he stretches and sits down into a cross-shot that Tremmel beats away.

Updated at 2.11pm GMT

2.08pm GMT

37 min That goal will be a real heel to the solar plexus for Swansea, who've been easily the better side.

2.05pm GMT

GOAL! Swansea City 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur

This is a simple yet brilliant piece of goal. Lennon, on the touchline, picks a pass inside for Eriksen, who controls on his thigh and lofts a return. Then, seeing Eriksen moveing towards him, he lays off again, gently this time, and at perfect velocity for the outswinging cross that is unfurled. Dembele is in the middle and misses his header, but the delivery is so good that it's still there for Adebayor, who heads down and in - though, seeing his celebration, it's possible that God got the final touch.

Adebayor scores. Photograph: GEOFF CADDICK/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 2.27pm GMT

2.04pm GMT

31 min Sometimes, players are on a buzz, able to make the game all about them, and Bony is doing precisely that at the moment. A nondescript long cross from Rangel looks a waste of time, Dawson and Chiriches either side of him, but he runs away from it without taking his eyes off the ball before craning neck and head into a header back towards the far corner, Lloris forced to extend into a save.

2.02pm GMT

30 min Emmanuel Adebayor is knocked over by Wayne Routledge. Yes, really. Perhaps he was dazzled by the captivating nature of the green eyes with which Routledge is reputedly obsessed.

1.59pm GMT

29 min Bony is keen to get in some more showing off, so dashes back into his own half to win the ball close to the left touchline, throwing bum and hips into a dummy and easily escaping Lennon before knocking off a pass with overstated understatement.

Updated at 1.59pm GMT

1.58pm GMT

27 min There is a pause while Davies receives treatment.

1.57pm GMT

25 min Bony is into this now, and seeing Shelvey break through the centre, positions himself for a pass out left and dips a shoulder as it arrives, ducking inside Dawson to absolutely massmurder a shot against the bar, close to the far post. He then waves arms at the crowd such that they might show their appreciation, and from a corner moments later, is shoved by Dawson as he jumps to head. No penalty is given.

1.54pm GMT

23 min But then Bentaleb snaps a delicious aerial pass from centre to right, finding Lennon - who can find nothing better to do than crack it high to the other side of the box, and eventually, the attack peters out.

1.52pm GMT

23 min Tactics Tim isn't really working, so far.

1.52pm GMT

20 min Bentaleb overruns the ball after careering into a tackle, and it's picked up by Bony, zoning towards goal from 30 yards out and almost dead centre. With Pozuelo to his right imploring a pass, he instead lumped a low shot that whooshed just wide of the left-hand post.

1.50pm GMT

19 min "Why do you disagree with Graeme Souness and his point about Swansea and the Uefa league? Seems like a reasonable point."

I don't disagree that it's had an effect, but were I a Swansea supporter, I'd be loving still being in Europe, confident of staying up, and sure that I'd take a season of Euro aways and the like even if it meant relegation.

1.48pm GMT

17 min Michael Laudrup's anorak looks like his best Lord Anthony.

1.47pm GMT

15 min Brilliant from Eriksen, who, boxed by three men, out on the right, weaves past one and away from two, screeching clear with them in pursuit like some kind of cartoon mouse, before running out of pitch.

1.45pm GMT

13 min First proper shot of the game, and again, it's Shelvey, thumping a drive left-to-right from just outside the box, Lloris plunging to palm it away.

1.45pm GMT

12 min I wonder if Tim Sherwood will be able to get the most from Moussa Dembele. Given that he's only recently been converted into a midfielder, he'll need to learn the position - more than anything, the positioning that means games don't pass him by, so that he can exploit his ability to run with the ball. No one ever quite managed it with Anderson, who has a similar strength and weakness.

And there is is - Dembele turns to explode past Rangel on the right, deee inside the box - but his cut-back is intercepted.

1.41pm GMT

11 min Things have slowed. That didn't take long.

1.40pm GMT

9 min Spurs, wearing a kind of bright baby blue pyjama, break through Adebayor, lanking through the middle. With Lennon buzzing to his right and moving inside in anticipation of a through-ball, he slides a pass to that end, but misread the run, so it runs through to Tremmel.

1.38pm GMT

6 min Spurs have barely mustered a kick thus far, and they turn Spurs' right, Routledge cleverly pirouetting to send Pozuelo laifing away. Again, the man waiting to shoot from distance is Jonjo Metgod, and from a similar position, he's much closer this time, but still plenty away.

1.36pm GMT

5 min Swansea win a corner down the left, and with everyone lined up in regulation formation, Pozuelo clips for Jonjo Scholes on the edge of the box, close to its nearer corner. He slices across a shot, and the ball wafts somewhere and nowhere.

1.34pm GMT

3 min They say that there are 70 faces to the bible, and as such, it's no great surprise that Jack Hawkins has another reading of the t-shirt. "Rock beats scissors I think".

Meanwhile, Swansea break sharply, Pozeulo accelerating down the left and nipping inside to Shelvey, who transferred first time to Bony, to his right. But Lloris was alive to the threat, and dashed out to avert the danger.

Alan Parry is feverish, which tells you that an ad break is imminent. Meanwhile, Ademola-Popoola Oreoluwa reckons he's been granted divine insight. "'Spurs are definitely gonna win!'" , that's what my pastor said" he said, "but thing is the opposite of what he says almost always happens."

1.27pm GMT

"Seeing as you got your cheap Spurs jabs in early," bristles Daniel Montefusco, "may I raise a few counter points, no? Well I will anyway: Liverpool hung at home to Villa, Man Utd appear confused in transition; and Everton are one injured striker away from panic. So how are Spurs any more unlikely than the others to nip that fourth spot? Just wondering like."

Well, yuh, you know, that's just, like my opinion, man. But to attempt some justification, I'm not sure they've enough goals in them, nor that they defend well enough to get more points than Liverpool.

Inevitably, here's an Arsenal supporter. "Re: the t-shirt, to be fair, grown men who really should know better were proclaiming that Tottenham had 'won the transfer window' in August. Spurs undoubtedly have more previous in the field of cringe-induction, I think."

Michael Laudrup is complimented by being beautiful by Tim Sherwood picking a five-man midfield. It ought to be illegal to type those two names in the same sentence.

1.13pm GMT

Email, with Natan Misak: "If you think about the Gunners shirt they’re just telling themselves to eff off really."

And, er, with a mug of Nescafe for company...

1.11pm GMT

So, all of Swansea's doubts were well-founded Vorm remains absent, Tiendali and Lamah start on the bench, and Hernandez, De Guzman, Canas and Dyer are absent altogether. By the look of things, the boy Amat will play in front of the back four.

Spurs, meanwhile, make just one alteration following their win over Crystal Palace, Chadli in for Soldado.

Preamble. Life is a schlep, and of the very worst kind; it takes way more years than anything to which we can compare it, and there is no definitive endpoint. So, in the meantime, and to the extent that we can be bothered, we do whatever we can to make it better - and again, are stymied by the lack of comparator. How can we possibly tell if it's any good, if it's the only we've ever had?

Unless you're Glenn Hoddle. Swansea and Spurs know how this feels. In the past, both sides have had very clear aims: get promoted then stay up, or finish in the top four. But what they want out of this season is slightly cloudier, for Swansea on account of unexpected success, for Spurs on account of characteristic bumbling.

Swansea, seven places off the bottom of the table, have only three points more than Sunderland - they're not remotely close to safe, nor have they played all that well - but are still in the Uefa and FA Cups. Ought they to be satisfied with guaranteeing another season in the top division and doing their best elsewhere, or disappointed if they can't improve on last season's ninth place and trophy?

Spurs, on the other hand, look unlikely to finish in a Champions League position - in the first instance, a failure - but have rid themselves of Andre Villas-Boas, a notable triumph. Oh, life.